Advertisers become front page news A new advertising option will see advertisers able to wrap their brand around News Limited Com- munity Newspapers. Advertisers now have the op- portunity to take the front run- ning in 96 newspapers nation wide, thanks to an advertising idea called media bags. Media bags allow advertisers to print their brand message on an environ- mentally friendly poly bag that will be wrapped around any or all of News Limited's Community Newspapers' mastheads. Advertisers have three options: Media Bag, which offers advertis- ers the opportunity to brand one side of a plastic bag that will con- tain a newspaper; Media Bag Plus, which includes a tear off redemp- tion device; and Media Pouch, which features a heat sealed com- partment where advertisers may include product samples, gifts or other promotional items. "We are delighted to offer advertisers what will effectively be a billboard effect that con- sumers will experience in their own homes", said News Limited Community Newspapers na- tional sales director, John Gal- loway. "Just as we are constantly refreshing our newspapers in or- der that they maintain relevance to our readers' lives, media bags offer advertisers a direct line to catch the attention of our ever- expanding readership base." News Limited has teamed up with new Australian marketing company Measurable Media, who will drive the creative execution of this poly-bagging technology, a first for the Australian market. "The power of media bags stems from the opportunity ad- vertisers now have to invite cus- tomers to touch and feel brands," said Measurable Media marketing manager, Jay Talbot. 34 | PANPA BULLETIN February 2006 SOFTWARE MATTERS KEVIN SLIMP OK. I didn't mean to write another column about PDF files. After a week at the beach with my family, I arrived at the office with plans to pen my annual 'favourites' column, providing an overview of my favourite hardware and software products for 2006. My plans quickly changed when I found an inbox filled with des- perate cries for help, all related to problem PDF files, Just four months ago, I wrote a column about creating the perfect PDF file. I failed, however, to men- tion what to do with those pesky PDF files that you receive from other, good-natured, sources. Allow me to share some of the messages from my inbox, along with suggestions for curing these PDF woes. From Brian in Illinois: Any chance you could give me di- rection on these files? The one labeled MyMac.PDF causes Ac- robat to quit when creating an EPS using Acrobat 7. The PDF labeled Teresa.PDF was created in Distiller 5 and OS 9. It created an EPS OK, but causes Quark 6.5 to crash. Well, Brian, I'm not sure why Acrobat was crashing, but let me tell you what I've learned. Upon examination of the PDF files, us- ing a Preflight Profile in Acrobat Pro (versions 6 & 7), I found that these files were filled with OPI information. OPI information can cause some applications and imagesetters to act strange- ly. The problem was caused by faulty settings in the creator's Acrobat Distiller. In addition, the PDF file saved in OS 9 was saved as a version 1.4 (Acrobat 5) PDF file. To be safe, set your Distiller to always create 1.3 (Acrobat 4) compatible files. This will help all applications understand the file when placed on a page. The fix for files with OPI information is to save the file as an EPS, then convert it to PDF using the cor- rect Distiller settings. If the OPI information is causing the prob- lem with saving the file as an EPS (I've not seen this before), you could use a PDF plug-in like PDF Enhancer (available at www.apagoinc.com) to remove the OPI information from the PDF file. From Leanne in Alberta: The original ad preflight indicated OPI problems. What do you think the "X" through the OPI means? The "X" is Acrobat's way of letting you know a problem has been found in the PDF file. I fixed this file by saving it as an EPS file (grayscale), then redistilled it us- ing the appropriate settings in Distiller. This removed the OPI information altogether. From Scott in Tennessee: I received this file from a client this morning. When I send it to the RIP, the text prints in Courier and comes out on all four plates. I feel your pain, Scott. You've run into two major problems, neither created by you. But, as the printer, you're expected to fix the problems and print the files. There are two ways to tackle this problem. The text separation problem could be quickly fixed using an Acrobat plug-in known as Quite a Box of Tricks (available at www.quite.com). The Courier problem was caused by fonts that weren't embedded. Not much you can do on your end about that. I called the offending party and learned that their Distiller settings were faulty. Unknown to them, their settings instructed Distiller to remove many of their fonts from the PDF files. I also learned that text was separating onto all four plates because they were using an export filter in QuarkXPress to create the PDF file, rather than saving the page as a Postscript (or EPS) file first. After five minutes on the phone, they were creating PDF files with text on the black plate only and all fonts embedded. From Chuck in Alabama: This file looks OK to me, but Quark crashes every time I try to place the file on the page. There were a couple of prob- lems with this file, Chuck. First, it was exported directly from InDesign to PDF. The result is that the file contains CID fonts, which can cause significant problems in some applications and printing environments. The chief problem with this file was that it was saved as an Acrobat 1.6 (Acrobat 7) file. Most applica- tions don't know how to handle this level of PDF. I fixed the file by opening it in Acrobat Pro 7, run- ning it through PDF Optimizer (found under the ADVANCED menu), then re-saving the file as an Acrobat 1.3 (Acrobat 4) file. Enough! No more PDF col- umns for a while. Kevin Slimp is the director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology, an international training program for newspaper designers and publishers located on campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Past Columns can be found at www.kevinslimp.com Information concerning the institute can be found at www.newspaperinstitute.com Kevin answers more cries for help More pesky PDF files